DIY steps and stairs

Loopysue · July 2016

This is for all you people out there who just want a nice doorstep or a short flight from one level to the next, using a texture of your choice - Transparent step SHADOWS, that let the texture below become the steps for you.

Use these shadows to stamp out your own steps or staircase on a polygon you have already drawn of the material you would prefer to use for your steps. Then add the steps by adding the step shadow. Banisters are best drawn on the sheet above, so that you can drop a nice shadow to lift the banister from the steps. Voila! Your illusion is complete.

This is only a very simple shadow for now. I haven't yet figured out how to do the corner bits you see on most other professional steps, but hey - its a start in the right direction, and... I'm working on it.

EDIT: I have added a series of screen shots to show you what these shadow images do.

Loopysue · July 2016

Here follow all the numbers of steps you could want up to 15:

Loopysue · July 2016

3 steps

Loopysue · July 2016

4 steps

Loopysue · July 2016

5 steps

Loopysue · July 2016

6 steps

Loopysue · July 2016

7 steps

Loopysue · July 2016

8...

Loopysue · July 2016

9...

Loopysue · July 2016

10...

Loopysue · July 2016

11

Loopysue · July 2016

12

Loopysue · July 2016

13... no - I'm not superstitious, but if you are, wouldn't 13 steps down to the secret vault of horrors be great?

Loopysue · July 2016

14

Loopysue · July 2016

15

Loopysue · July 2016

I have added these separately because they looked like one very very long staircase all in the same post.

I hope they are of some use to you, and if they are a bit too pale for your taste, just remember you can add them on top of one another to make a really black shadow.

I will be working on those corner shadows and hope to produce a similar set but with darker corners. If there is enough interest I might add a third set with rough/irregular edges and a fourth set of worn step shadows.

Loopysue · July 2016

Oops - forgot the cellar shadow. Use this to darken the bottom of a set of steps that go down into the cellar.

Mateus090985 · July 2016

Thank you! They look incredible!

Loopysue · July 2016

Thank you Mateus. Use them for whatever you want.

JimP · July 2016

Saved. I'm sure I'll find a use for them. Thanks !

thatguy14 · August 2016

Hi this might be a stupid question but how do you use these? I want to do something similar in one of my maps to make stairs in a cave (it leads to an altar in the story).

Loopysue · August 2016

The graphics are transparent. I perhaps should have uploaded this earlier, but this is what happens when you paste them as symbols into your CC3 file:

(I have cheated just a bit here, because I used a slightly different fill directly under the stair shadows, but this should give you the general idea. Download them, put them in your Symbols/User folder and call up that folder in CC3 by clicking the folder button beneath the 'Options...' button in the symbol display, and navigating to the User folder, then double clicking one of the stair shadows.

Let me know if you have any difficulties

EDIT: if you want to add the cellar shadow that's a separate symbol on its own, either with or without the handrail. You just paste it over the top. (Tip: I would use a set of 10 steps to make the down shadow work well)

thatguy14 · August 2016

You'e done it again loopysue! It worked really well for what I wanted. I am creating this for a dungeons and dragons campaign. In this they are clearing out a cave full of bandit halflings (they are working with a sorcerer from a rival nation who has disguised himself as one of the guards!). This cave actually leads to an altar that contains an artifact that is used for a big festival but the sorcerer wants it for his own nation.

Anyways, the look is good! I just started this so only have the attached done

Loopysue · August 2016

Thanks thatguy14.

That's looking good.

I'm glad they worked for you

thatguy14 · August 2016

I hope you don't mind answering, but I have a quick question.

See attached screenshot

I am adding trees but the ones with DD3 are a bit too light green for my taste. I want to make them darker. However, when I put them on a sheetand then try to use sheet effects to change their color, nothing happens to them when I update. Why is that?

Loopysue · August 2016

Symbols don't react all that well to sheet effects. There are ways to force a change, but they involve using another sheet with a polygon that covers only the trees and nothing else in the map, and which has one of the semi-transparent fills. This could be a very labour intensive exercise with more than one or two trees.

I would strongly recommend that you download and install the new Vintyri Cartographic Collection with Symbol set 5, and Bogies Mapping Objects for CC3.

Both of these contain literally thousands of photorealistic symbols you can use, along with a vast range of new texture fills good enough to make any map as close to photographic as you chose to go.

Instructions for doing this (and also the pitfalls to avoid during installation) are contained in the top two sticky threads on the PF forum. If you have any problems it would be best to ask your questions on one or the other of those two threads... since I am only a user, and not an expert by any means

Here is a small sampler of some of the new symbols and fills that would become available to you:

thatguy14 · August 2016

Thanks Loopysue, I thought it might be something like that. I think I have the vintari set installed so I will check it out. Will also look at Bogies. Thanks as always : )

Loopysue · August 2016

Before you change anything, its as well to read those two threads I pointed you to earlier - avoid the pitfalls that can happen.

Other than that - happy mapping

Dogtag · August 2016

Or, you can just use the varicolor symbols that come with DD3. Many, if not all, symbols come in two versions, normal and varicolor. Normal symbols display just as they are, with pre-set colors that you can't change. Varicolor symbols, on the other hand, will use the currently-selected color (in whole or in part) when you place them. Once placed, the symbol continues to use that color even if you change the current color again, so you could make a forest of different autumn-colored trees for example. You can, however, change their color later by using the Change Properties button.

You can recognize varicolor symbols by a colored square in the top right corner in the symbol catalog. The symbol name also generally ends with the text "vari" or the letter "v," but that might be cut off from view. Not all symbols have a varicolor version, but the default DD3 trees do.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
~Dogtag

thatguy14 · August 2016

Oh man I totally forgot about that option dogtag!! I managed to find a symbol I liked but I will have to experiment with that. Thanks again!

Sorry Loopysue didn't meant to highjack your thread!

Loopysue · August 2016

That's ok, thatguy14. LOL Threads are for talking, and this one was fairly redundant, so you made good use of it

I also totally forgot the varicoloured symbol option

ProFantasy Community Forum

DIY steps and stairs

Comments